Lark men go cold from the field

HESSTON — The Hesston College men’s basketball team played a solid first half, but ran out of gas in the second, falling to Southeast (Neb.) Community College 84-62 Friday in the Hesston Thanksgiving Classic at Yost Center. Hesston falls to 4-5. Southeast improves to 6-2. Southeast shot 54.8 percent in the second half. Hesston hit just 25.6 percent in the second half, one of 17 from 3-point range in the second half. “When they went to the 1-2-2, and packed it in, they decided they were going to live or die on our perimeter shots,” Hesston coach Dustin Galyon said. “We went one of 17 from the perimeter in the second half. Sixteen of those 17 shots were good looks. You can tip your hat to them, because the 1-2-2 worked. We have shooters, but they didn’t hit tonight. Our long misses from three led to transition baskets for them. That was the story of the game.” Southeast also outscored Hesston 19-7 from the free throw line and outrebounded Hesston 47-33. Most of Southeast’s scoring in the first half came on second-, third- and sometimes fourth-chance points. “We were outrebounded by 14, which is not OK,” Galyon said. “Their zone, you can’t go one of 17 from the perimeter and expect to win. We needed to get more intense on defense.” Delquan Thomas led the Storm with 27 points and 19 rebounds. Trey Porter and Jarrod Gamble each added 16 points. Hesston was led by Mahlon Jones with 21 points. Beau Palmer added 14 points with 10 rebounds. Pierre Zook, who averages 18.5 points a game, was held to two, going zero of nine from 3-point range. Alex Santiago, who averages 12.0 points a game, was held to three. Southeast led in the early going, but by no more than five points. The momentum swung Hesston’s way in the second 10 minutes of the first half, but the Larks never led by more than five points. Southeast hit a layup with four seconds left in the half to tie the game 34-34. Hesston was 16 of 32 shooting in the first half, while Southeast was just 14 of 40, but the Storm outscored Hesston 6-0 from the free throw line. Hesston had just two attempts, while Southeast had 12. Hesston made an 8-2 run to open the second half. Tied 46-46, Southeast made a 22-9 run to put the game away. Hesston plays the Tabor junior varsity at 8 p.m. today in the final game of the classic. “They will play hard,” Galyon said. “They are very skilled. We’re going to have to show up to play for 40 minutes.” NOC-E 85, Tabor JV 41 Northern Oklahoma-Enid opened classic play with an 85-41 win over the Tabor JV. NOC-E led 41-12 at the half. Connor Brooks led NOC-E with 18 points, followed by Jeremy Espinoza with 12. Jesse Allen led Tabor with seven points.SOUTHEAST (Neb.) CC (6-2) — Hidreth 3-5 0-0 6, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Porter 4-12 8-11 16, Corlew 0-4 0-0 0, Thomas 10-19 7-16 27, Roberts 3-12 1-2 9, McKeiver 1-3 0-0 2, Gamble 7-9 1-2 16, Brooks 3-5 2-4 8, Conner 0-1 0-0 0, TOTALS 31-71 19-35 84. HESSTON (4-5) — M.Jones 10-20 0-0 21, Roth 1-1 0-0 2, Gingerich 0-2 2-2 2, C.Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Santiago 1-6 0-0 3, Barnes 2-7 0-0 4, Zook 1-14 0-0 2, Palmer 5-6 4-5 14, Smoot 2-5 0-2 4, Davis 2-4 1-2 6, Patterson 2-6 0-0 4, TOTALS 26-71 7-11 62. S-East 34 50 —84 Hesston 34 28 —62 Total fouls — SE 16, HC 25. Technical fouls — none. Fouled out — HC: Davis. 3-point shooting — SE 3-12 (Hidreth 0-2, Porter 0-2, Corlew 0-1, Roberts 2-6, Gamble 1-1), HC 3-23 (M.Jones 1-4, Gingerich 0-1, Santiago 1-5, Barnes 0-2, Zook 0-9, Davis 1-2). Rebounds — SE 47 (Thomas 19), HC 33 (Palmer 10). Assists — SE 9 (Thomas 4), HC 11 (M.Jones 4). Turnovers — SE 13 (Porter 5), HC 15 (Barnes 4, Smoot 4). Blocked shots — SE 5 (McKeiver 2), HC 3 (Smoot 3). Steals — SE 12 (Thomas 6), HC 5 (M.Jones 2, Smoot 2).